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HORACK (IRIvKLIvY POST, Xo. 577, C;. A. R. 



52 rxioN SnlAKj;, I 

Ni;\v York, June i, 1SS9. 1 

Cdi.. I,. ^I. I.awson: 

At a sjKcial iiieetiiiLi of this Post, held after listeiiini^ to your 
i-lo(|uc-nt oration at the .tjrave of Horace (irceley, at (yreenwood Cenie- 
terw on the .^otli nil., it was, on motion of Senior X'ice-Coniniander 
Alirahani I'ietrh. unanimously voted that you he re([uested to furnish 
the Post with a t'o])y of the same for ])rintin.iL,^ in suitabU' form as a 
souvenir of the oci-asion. I trust that you will find it couNenient to 
eom])l\- with the wishes of the Post at ;in I'arly date. 
Vour.-^ \ery truly, 

(^I'ORc;!-: IP MooRi-;, 

1-'ka\k S. Taft, Coiiniiandri . 

.Idjittaiit. 



102 Broadway, I 

Ni'Av York, June "v 1.SS9. 1 

Cdmmandkr C.ko. IP MooRH, 

//oiarr (irecley Post, (i. . I. A'.: 
I feel highly honored hy the recjuest contained in yom- \-ahu<l 
favor of the 1st inst., and it ^ixes nie .Ljreat ])leasnre to coni])ly with it. 
Please convex- to \-our Post ni\- hiyh ajipreciation of the consideration 
with which I was treated on the occasion of the decoration of the 
t^^rave of Horace (ireeley. 

i'aithfulh- yours, 

P. -M. P.WV.SON. 



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cord Print, lot l''.lni St., N Y 



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I y/r/-(n/s of floi-acc (h'cclcy l\>sl: 

Tin-: judoinciit of tlie people is almost always 
rii^ht when it aeeords piiblie honors to a eitizen in 
rceo^L^nition of his abilities or achievements. Yet, 
when it is soni^ht to \eriiv the possession of really 
oreat qnalities bv any man, the best c\-idence is to 
be furnished b\- those who, in exercising- the same 
\()cation, haye encountered him in the close and 
tryino- contact of the work-day world. 

In that relation what eminent man of our time 
and countr\- has left a more endearint;' memory 
than the ])rinter-editor around whose tomb we 
stand ^ The i^reat distinction which he attained 
did not change liis kindl\- nature ; the renown 
which he won induced no haui^htiuess. In his 
demeanor towards his co-workers there was uoth- 
iuL^- of that assumed loftiness and reserxe with 
which inferior men seek to mask their weakness 
and their mediocritw The ])osition of ])ower and 
influence secured by self-denial and through years 



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of toil at the case and in the sanctuin did not 
render him indifferent to the rights of his fellow- 
printers or forgetful of their trials and labors. 

Though it may be said of him that he was 
quick to reprove and hot in rebuke, his anger was 
but an incident of a harassing and lal3orious pro- 
fession ; and I doubt not many of you can recall 
occasions when his great heart brought ready 
apology for hasty words. 

It is most fitting that von — veterans of the 
Union armies, and in large part veterans also of 
the foremost of arts — should have shown your 
pride in the fame of your illustrious friend by adopt- 
ing his name. It is meet, too, that you should 
link with such an abiding token of respect the im- 
pressixe custom of repairing hither, at this season 
of consecration and of beauty, to hallow his grave 
with flowers, with eulogv, and with the most ex- 
alted of all the honors which the living can bestow 
upon the dead — the re\-erent ])resence ot brave 
men bearing the flag which they defended in a 
great and victorious war. 

Let these Memorial Day pilgrimages continue 
until the last comrade of your Post shall himself 

!ft t #. 



be at rest under the haiiucr he loved and wliieli 
Horace Greeley, by his jxatriotisni and his Renins, 
eontrilnited so ninch to make in ver\- truth more 
richly fraut^ht with the blessint^s and the ho])es 
of mankind than any standard that was ever borne 
by any army or anv navy on any sea or any land 
in all " the tides of time." 

A generation has well-nigh passed away since 
Horace Greeley died and was buried here. His 
eventful life ended in the great metro])olitan centre 
in which he exerted so dominant an influence dur- 
ing all of the tragic period of our National history. 
His career ])resents the most eager, the most posi- 
tive and the most industrious personality that 
has been exhibited on this continent since the 
Colonies became States of the Federal Union. It 
may be claimed that we of to-da}' fail to estimate 
fnlly his power in the solution of the great prob- 
lems of which his life was a part, and that we dis- 
cern but imperfectly his intelligent, hnmane, and 
heroic course — a course that knew no timidity. 
It has been assumed by many that, in the steady 
march of time and being near to his career as we 
are, we begin to forget his nnicjue character from 

fe ^ SJ 



iff m 

the time wlicii, still an inicoiitli boy, be became 
the oracle of his hamlet in New England, nntil he 
was everywhere recognized as possessed of a rare 
order of mind and erndition, completing his life as 
the a])()Stle of humanity, winning and holding the 
attention of thonghtfnl and patriotic men of all 
conditions and all countries up to the moment 
when America became a house of mourning at his 
bier. 

It is often said, in considering the life of a great 
man, conspicuous for achievements about which his 
surxivors may disagree, that the latter are not re- 
mote enough from his performances to assign him 
a ]}ro])er place in history; which means, I take it, 
that posterity will know more about the facts than 
the active participants in the events in which he 
was a leader or champion. This, I think, is a 
mistake, and the testimony of this Memorial Day 
is the e\idence of it. So, too, would it be a greater 
and more grievous mistake to say that Horace 
(irecley was a ]:)roduct alone of our American insti- 
tutions, or that, outside of a re])ublic he would not 
have existed as a mental potentate at all. vSuch is 
a common and cheap jdirase often used in con- 



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sidcriiig' llic cliaracler of tliose who have l)cen 
l^henoiiieiial in the f^rowth of this Western Conti- 
nent ; and I ho])e tliat, in the few moments I sliall 
detain von here, I mav l)e al)le to sliow tliat Horace 
Greeley would have been a s^reat man in an\- 
countrv, in an\- pro^ressiNe movement, and in anv 
age of which we have historic account ; in other 
words, had it been his destiny to participate in the 
recent National convulsions al^road for the l)etter- 
ment of tlie people at large he would in other lands 
have been on the same level with Cavour and (lari- 
l)aldi in Italy, with Daniel O'Connell and Parnell 
in Ireland, witli Kossuth in Hnngar\-, with Mid- 
liat Pasha in Turkey and with the luckless Arabi 
in Egypt. His whole life from his earliest boyhood 
exliibited a single ])urposc from which at no time 
did he swerve, and that purpose was to be a con- 
scientious and thorough publicist; which is ])crhaps 
the most accurate description of his career among 
the journalists, the statesmen, the ]K)liticians, the 
economists and the literati of whom he was a fore- 
most figure during forty years of the commercial 
and intellectual growth of New York. 

And who was this man wlio ke])t all America 



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ao-o_t^- duriiio that era which witnessed the rise of 
the United States to the foremost place among the 
great ])owcrs of tlie world ? 

He was born in a hamlet called Amherst in 
New Hampshire, in 1811, and his father was a 
respectable farmer, Zacchens Greeley, of Scotch- 
Irish parentage. I shall not follow his boj-hood, 
early edncation, and apprenticeship, to which able 
biographers have done complete jnstice. Enough, 
be it said, that we discover from an examination of 
these books that truly "the child is father of the 
man;" that his early training was almost in a com- 
plete measure his own, although he had a mother of 
untutored but instinctive resources; that he was a 
devourer of books, journals, and even of almanacs, 
a tireless asker of questions, a perpetual debater of 
all subjects uppermost, a l)oy and a 3'outh crowding 
his mind with facts, until he became a reservoir of 
knowledge on taj) to the local seer, the clergyman 
and the professor of his town. This mental master}' 
of the circle in which the poor boy moved during 
years of distress and hardship, when there was 
never a sign of discontent nor the slightest shadow 
of dishonor, undoubtedlv must have made him con- 



& 



scions of the ])o\vcr wliich was witliiii, and wliicli, 
from the lime lie set out on lono- pedestrian pils^rini- 
ai^es in pursuit of cnipUwnient to the moment 
of liis defeat for the Presidency in 1872, never 
seemed to suffer any a])preciable diminution. 

His \()uth was an unvarying- round of study, 
industry and constant privation, ^-et of thorough 
indifference to the untoward experiences which 
marked this period of his life. He was endowed 
with none of the oraces of even the crude society 
from which he sprung, and his person was destitute 
of polish, charm or fascination ; but as he grew to 
manhood, it began to be perceived that his was no 
ordinary intellect, and that, added to an insatiable 
thirst for knowledge, he was gifted with a marvel- 
lous memory, a ready, a])t, and logical utterance, a 
subtile sense of discrimination, and a keen insight 
into the mysteries of life. Hence it was that he 
soon became the youthful mentor of the village of 
Kast Poultney, Vermont, in fact its town encyclo- 
pedia. It was here, after the most rudimentary 
opportunities of the district school, followed by 
the largest range of reading possible in an intelli- 
gent commonwealth of New Ivngland, that he 

& : S 



ff la 

entered a priiitiiii^ office as an apprentice and laid 
the fonndation of his fntnre editorial career. 

From the age of fifteen to twent\' he was a 
wanderer on foot, carrying his hnmble pack over 
the hills of New Hampshire, crossing the dense 
woods of the Empire State, and penetrating the 
uncnt forests of Penns3'lvania, always in pnrsnit of 
the practice of his craft. And were these migra- 
tions, like those of the trader and the pioneer, that 
he might lay np riches? Not that — only that his 
snr])his earnings might go to save the encnmbered 
farm of his father. This self-abnegation and 
generosity were worthy and conspiciions features 
of his subsequent life. 

On the 1 8th of August, 1831, Horace Greeley, 
ha\ ing descended the Hudson from Albany, arrived 
in the City of New York with a capital of ten dol- 
lars. I will not recount the scoffs and jeers which 
greeted his uncouth a])pearance as he went from 
printing office to printing office in search of work ; 
how most unwillinglv and b}- a mere accident he 
was ])ut to the test as a practical typesetter and 
showed such a w(mderful intelligence, accuracy, 
and manual dexterity in setting uj) the difficult 

a^ - M 



pai^cs of a ])()lygl()t Testaiiiciit tliat his success 
as a printer was secured in the Metropolis. Nor 
need there l)e anv reference in detail to those busi- 
ness vicissitudes which ])reeeded his rise to the 
editorial desk. First a terse parai^raphist, he after- 
wards became an occasional contributor. 

In 1S34 the AvTt' ]v>'//vv' appeared with Horace 
Greele}- as its editor-in-chief. It was incomparably 
the best journal of its kind that had yet appeared 
in the Union. It almost instantly gave him a 
National reputation. He bounded into fame at 
once as a correct, vigorous, expressive and posi- 
ti\e writer, covering all branches of the literar}^ and 
journalistic art, entering at once upon a discussion 
of those subjects which became the grist of his 
ceaseless mill in after years, such as " Slaver^-," 
"Agriculture," "International Copyright," "Cap- 
ital Punishment" and "The Tariff." 

His editorship of the JrlfosoniiUi followed in 
i(S3<S, and during the Harrison campaign of 1S40 he 
published the Loir Cahiti, which reached an almost 
instantaneous circulation of ninety thousand. 

I>ut all these ventures were merely ])reliminary 
to tlie great work of his life, the establishment of 

& - a 



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a iic\\s|)a}>er wliicli was destined to become the most 
jKJwerfiil political journal on the Western Hemi- 
s])here, the Aytc ]^()r/c Tribune, of which Horace 
(ireelev himself has written these memorable words: 

I'aiiK' is n va])()r, popularity an accident ; riches take wings ; 
the only earthly certainty is oblivion. No man can foresee what a clay 
may hrini^ forth, while those that cheer to-day may often curse to- 
morrow. And yet I cherish the hope that the journal I projected and 
estahlished will live and flourish long after I have mouldered into 
forgoUin dust, lieing guidcfl by a larger wisdom, a more unerring sa- 
gacil\- to discern the right, though not with a more unfaltering readi- 
ness to tni])race and defend it at whatever personal cost ; and that the 
stone- which covers my ashes ma\- bear to future eyes the still intelli- 
gil)U' insi-ri])tion, " I'ouuder of the AVu' Yoik 7'')ihiaic" . 

The Dihuiir appeared on the loth of April, 
iS.|i, and the subsequent thirty years of its exist- 
ence have been fraui^ht with momentous events. 
The gradual growth of the sectional alienation 
between the North and the South, the incorporation 
of Texas into the Union, the Mexican War and the 
military achievements of Taylor and vScott, the con- 
quest of New Mexico and Chihuahua by Doni])han 
and of California by Kearny and FreuKnit, the 
decay of the \\'hig ])arty, the rise and fitful life of 
Know-Nothingism, the foundation of the Republi- 
can party, the split of the Democracy into hostile 



fe- 



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facti(His, tlic Cliicaoo CfMueiition of 1860, the de- 
feat oi Williaiii II. vSeward in that l)()d\-, the nomi- 
nation and eleetion of Lineoln, the Civil War and 
reeonstrnetion — tliesc formed frnitfnl and almost 
daily themes for the nse of the most granitie and 
trenehant Knjdish that has c\er appeared in a 
jonrnal jMiblished in onr langnage. It is not too 
mneh to sa_v that, in the generation described, 
Horace Greelc}-, ])v the very gifts of a ])en known 
in all forms of modern controversy, was the most 
])()werfnl as he was the most influential writer of 
his time. His diction, while singularly direct and 
simple, was that of an intellectual giant, hurling 
boulders when his contem])oraries were tossing 
pebbles. Guided by a lofty aim in all public dis- 
cussion, truthful if not ])olitic, sincere when dissim- 
ulation would have made him a more successful pol- 
itician, in all the grave questions upon which he 
poured the light of his luminous intelligence, the 
Tjihiiur was the very lexicon of liberty. Its great 
battle against slavery was the fiercest struggle 
which has ever been fought, and triumph was its 
reward ; for while Abraham Lincoln, who, without 
the editor of the riihuiif could not ha\e been Prcsi- 



# 



dent of tlie United States, wrote with his own hand 
the Decree of Emancipation, it is to Horace Gree- 
ley that liistor}' will assign the credit of having ex- 
tingnished the institution of slaver}^ on this hemis- 
phere. 

But besides his fight against slavery Horace 
Greeley, after Henr}' Clay, was the most powerful 
champion of that distinctive polic}^ which was styled 
by the great Kentuckian " The American System." 

The other features of his public life — his elec- 
tion to and honorable service in Congress, striking 
always at corruption and tainted methods of ever}^ 
kind, vigorously maintaining the purity and inde- 
pendence of the ballot, disdaining servility to cliques 
and bosses, and far removed from that odious creat- 
ure of to-day, the fast-niultipl3'ing Mammon-wor- 
shi])pcr, his wide popularity as one of the most 
gifted men of the lyceum, his journey across the 
Plains and the Sierras, and his European expe- 
riences — are singular evidences of the variety and 
versatility of his busy life. 

When the War ended his daily watchword was 
universal amnesty, and in accordance with this hu- 
mane policy he prevented the trial of Jefferson Davis 



fe. 



M 



for treason by t^'oiiio; on liis hail l)ond for one luin- 
dred tlionsand dollars, assoeiatini;" with himself sueh 
stanch llnionists as (lerrit vSniith, Cornelins Yan- 
derhilt, Ani^nstns Schell, and John Minor Botts. 
Such action by these eminent citizens showed a drift 
of Northern sentiment which the Johnson Admin- 
istration dared not face, and thus by this mai^-nani- 
mous act was saved the barbarous spectacle of making 
bloody re]:)risals among the chieftains of the Confeder- 
acy ; and this was the keynote to Horace Greeley's 
entire life from the time when Lee surrendered his 
sword to Grant at Appomattox till the great editor 
was borric to his toml). 

For him the fight was over, the battle had been 
won, and fraternal love was the doctrine which he 
preached should thenceforth reign between the sec- 
tions. When nominated for the Presidenc\' in 1872 
bv the Liberal Republicans and the Democratic 
party his platform was substantially the brotherhood 
of man, and this in a wonderful series of powerful 
and ])athetic addresses he taught from the rostrums 
of the Union. That cam])aign, disastrous as it was 
to him, brought him many supporters of National 
distinction from the Repu])lican party ; among them, 

ft '2 Ji 



iff li 

Charles P^rancis Adams, Carl vSclnirz, Chainiccv 
M. Depew, Frank Hiscock, Lyiiiaii Trunibull, 
Andrew G. Cnrtin, Salmon P. Chase, David Davis 
and Charles vSnmner. lUit his election was not to 
be, and he did not lons^' linger amoni;- the people who 
were too slow to fathom his snblime maj^nanimity, 
a people too hii^hl}' wronght by eai^'er passion to 
nnderstand the sweetness of a !;;'entle heart, and alas ! 
too soon foro-etfnl of a lifetime of devotion tohnman- 
ity nnsnr])assed since America was a wilderness. 

And as we panse to sa\' a last word abont this 
o-reat man, whose memory on the recnrrini^ dawn of 
each snmmer's season we keep screen with frai^rance 
and with flowers, we are reminded that the last of 
the great trio has l)nt jnst passed awa}', the last of 
the three mighty and benevolent giants, Horace 
Greeley, Victor Hngo, and John Bright, types of 
rare and rnggcd genins, whose fnrther reverence we 
may safel}- leave to the appreciative jndgnient of 
mankind. 



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